Alumni Rundown: Faragher and Massa Shine on Big Stages
NORFOLK, VA – At the outset of the 2009-10 season, Ryan Faragher and Ryan Massa formed the goaltending duo that helped take the Bismarck Bobcats from an 0-5-2 start to first place by Thanksgiving; now they are coming up big on some of the biggest stages that the sport has to offer.
Faragher, deep into his first full professional season, notched his first American Hockey League shutout Friday for the Norfolk Admirals—the AHL affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks—making 24 saves in a 4-0 win over the Hershey Bears.
It marked the Fort Frances, Ontario, native’s second win in the world’s top minor league.
He would follow up that effort by making 26 of 27 saves the next night in a 2-0 loss to the Bears. In all he stopped 50 of 51 shots on the season’s third-to-last weekend.
At the college level, Massa and the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks touched down Tuesday in Boston for the 2015 Frozen Four.
The Mavericks made their first-ever national semifinal by knocking off Hobey Baker finalist Jimmy Vesey and Harvard 4-1 before blanking the upstart Rochester Institute of Technology 4-0.
Over the course of the Midwest Regional, Massa turned in 73 saves on 74 tries—including 40 in the Regional Final against RIT—to be named Most Outstanding Player.
That honor made the Littleton, Colo., native the first-ever Bobcat alum to earn Regional MOP honors. He is also the first Bobcat alum to reach the Frozen Four since 2013, when Faragher (St. Cloud State) and Alex Barron (Quinnipiac) faced off in Pittsburgh.
Nebraska-Omaha will play the opening game of this year’s Frozen Four Thursday at 4:00pm against the Providence Friars, the four-seed out of the East Regional.
Meanwhile, the Bobcats are preparing for a must-win Game Three of the Central Division Semifinals Friday against the Minot Minotauros at Maysa Arena.
Live coverage of Friday’s win-or-go-home clash will begin at 7:40pm locally on SuperTalk 1270, KLXX-AM, the radio home of Bobcat Hockey, and worldwide online at NAHL.FASTHockey.com, the official web television partner of the North American Hockey League.
